The Year was 1692
by Sand n' Sable
Summary: Everyone thinks that it was James who changed Victoria and started his coven but...what if things happened the other way around? This is what I think might have happened. Completed
1. The Beginning

Chapter 1

It was in autumn time of the year 1692...the air was crisp and clean but I wasn't really enjoying it because I was running, running for my life. I had been accused of witchcraft, why I don't know. Oh, it was probaly because I was 23, still not married, I have no desire to be, I did not wish to be some simple minded dolcile _person _ tied to some man and oh! I remember Lord Patterson's wife saying only last week :

'Oh! you have the flaming red hair of a witch! how I envy you!'

Did she think I was dolt? she accused me because I saw that look that her husband gave me, just like every other man with good eyesight!

I was running as hard as I could away from the mob when I fell up against a old tree and in trying to catch my breath, I heard a elderly man's voice say:

"Are you okay lass? why are you running so heavy?"

I jump at the words then I see the man of 55-60 standing in front of me, he does not look familiar but I say:

"Oh! I'm just running from **them!** the people of my town has accused me of being a witch!"

The man chuckles at my words then says:

"Are you?"

My eyes go in horror at his words then I yell out, louder than I should for a person in my situation:

"No!"

Then he just looks around then says:

"Would you like to make fools of them?"

His words interest me so then I take a long look at this man and I ask:

"How would that be?"

He shrugs his shoulders and says:

"Like this"

He leaps at me so fast that a mere heartbeat has not gone by and I feel something bite the skin of my neck then all goes black.

My eyes opened I think but I see nothing. My hands feel for the wall and it's hard

'Hard?'

I think to myself then I realize I am in a cave.

'A cave?' I was with that…that person by a old tree, now I'm here? What is going on?"

I sit up, my hand goes to my forehead and I realize, I _feel_ different. How? What?

Then I realize there's some light and my hands go along this rock/bench where I lay then I somehow realize that it's not light! It's my eyes! I can **see** in this darkness!

Why is my throat burning like a parched river? How many days have I been here?

I get up and go to the front of the cave…at least I think it's the front, my instincts have taken over….I see the sun and I smile because at least I see something I know but as soon as I hit sunlight, I can't believe it! My skin on my hand! It sparkles ! Like the jewels on a crown!!!

"What am I?"

I scream to nobody but the burning is still in my throat and it is so intensifying with each passing second that I can't stand it then I see him. My new eyes can see things _SO_ clear, that I can easily see a person at the edge of the woods, just coming in and before I knew it, my feet were almost floating on the ground faster than I ever expected to be and I was there before I knew it. I now recognized the person, he was one of the men who had chased me into these woods, accused me of being a witch! What was that odd man's words? 'Would you like to make fools of them?' the words echo in my mind and I say silently: 'Yes'

I take up my courage and say:

"Mister Hameliton?"

The man turns to me and asks:

"Victoria?"

The sun comes out at that very moment and he screeches like a fool banchee:

"I knew you were a witch!"

I just smile and say:

"I am not a witch"

He just snorts and says:

"Oh? Then what are you?"

I just smile and jump on him and my teeth go automatically to his neck, my teeth penetrate his neck and a smooth liquid enters my mouth and goes down my throat

Then after a few minutes, I throw his body on the ground and I know what I am and I smile.


	2. Chapter 2 JamesThe Tracker

It had been 83 years since I had became a vampire, I was thinking as I stood over my latest kill. It had been a young man ,a soldier in this war the humans are having now, 'Revolutionary war' I think they call it. Wars are so conveniet for vampires, we can get our victims and they think it's the enemy.

Victoria stood up, looked around the landscape, all she could see was dreary grey clouds and endless land, she could hear gunfire and cannons going off in the distance but it was of no mind to her.....lately, she had been feeling something she at first didn't know how to find words for it but she had now, she was lonely. She was so independent, at first she didn't want to admit it but now she did, she was tired of being alone. Strange, the people in her human village thought she was strange for not wanting a man but now it's strange to want one! Hmmm, she just took out on foot in no particular direction but she realized she was going west. What was west? Something was.

She had walked nearly a 100 miles but she was in no hurry, why be when you're a vampire? She had thrown her shoes off of her years ago, what need did she have of them? And she has heard from other vampires that you have to blend in, why? The only humans who see her die the very next minute, so…suddenly she stops herself in her tracks, she smells something….something nice, something she wants more than anything, she runs in the direction, she runs until she stops abruptly, with her eyes, she spots him…a man with a ponytail, he has dirty blond hair, a sharp and handsome face and blue eyes, very human eyes but she doesn't want to kill him…she **wants** this human!

He is on a white horse and he's looking down at the ground, another man is with him looking also and she hides behind a old oak tree and she hears the other man saying:

"He's around someplace"

The blond man with the ponytail says:

"I'll find him, the coward"

The first man smiles then says:

"I know you will James…"

Victoria thinks:

'James? That's his name? perfect"

The nameless man continues:

"You're the best tracker there is, that's why the army hired you"

Victoria thinks again:

"Tracker? More than perfect! That's what I need!"

James smiles sinister then asks:

"How many is it now? How many of these deserters have I tracked down?"

The man thinks, then says:

"Hmmm, at least 20 I would say"

James tells him,

"Get ready for 21"

The man smiles then asks James:

"How come you are so good at this?"

James looks at him, considers not to say anything but he then says:

"Indians, I was raised with them, they taught me everything, I actually went on a hunt with them when I was 15"

The man whistles then says:

"Whew! 15! What did your maw say?"

James then says:

"Nothing, my maw died when I was born"

The man takes his hat off, wipes his face then says:

"I'm sorry James"

James just shrugs it off then says:

"You didn't know…"

He jumps down from his horse to take a closer look at a hoof, barely touches it with his hand then yells out:

"This way!"

He jumps back on his horse and the two men take off like a trail of fire and Victoria smiles then follows them.

She was patient, she followed James for the rest of the year, there was no hurry and he was always with somebody, why not kill the other person? Because she did not want to frighten James off, anyway, she didn't mind following him these hundreds of miles, but she did see more of this war than she cared for. She especially remembers one battle, the battle was ruthless and a man stood by a cannon when it had a backfire and blew up on the young man and his entire body was in flames, Victoria wanted to help but fire is the one thing that even vampires dare not touch but when the flames subsided, she realized to her horror that the man was still alive, caring had not left Victoria just because of what she was so she turned around, bent down to the lifeless corpse beside her, got his gun and mercifully killed the man…then Victoria killed whatever soldiers she saw still with a beating heart, she felt that more merciful than letting them suffer but she never did it in a vampire way, she always either shot them, crushed them or whatever.

But what would be ironic to somebody else, she did kill the British redcoats in true vampire form, she felt that was her effort to the war.

She was following him again on another hunt, she figured that this had to be his 29th tracking of a deserter, he was again on the white horse which on closer inspection, had a bit of black on the other side of him. The human that is always with him came running out and shouts:

"James!"

James turns and looks and his partner shoves him a piece of paper then points northwest, James jumps up on his horse and the other man runs for his chestnut brown horse, jumps on it and off they go like the cannons around them. Victoria thinks for a minute then runs to the right of the woods she hides in, she runs and runs until she stops, she looks around confused, she is not a tracker and she yells:

"Arrgh!"

Just then she hears running horse hoofs, she looks and it is James and his partner. They stop and look around and then James sees on a tree not far from Victoria, the torn rags of a dark blue shirt and he yells:

"This way!"

They take off, as does Victoria

James and the man slow down their horses to a slow trot, James motions for the man to 'be quiet', they jump down and tie their horses to a tree, Victoria tries to stay as far back as she can so she doesn't frighten the horses…a thin line of smoke comes above the trees and the smaller man asks:

"Could it be Indians?"

James shakes his head vigorously no and says:

"No, Indian smoke would be stronger and that's smoke is from dead wood, Indians would never use that"

They then proceed quietly to the campground and then they see the deserter, walking like a nervous cat around his measly fire. James and the man get their shotguns out, cock them and James signals to the other man to go around, he does and James shouts out:

"Get your hands up Parker! You're under arrest!"

The man acts like he is going to turn with his hands up toward James but instead quickly reaches for his shotgun to shoot but James is faster, he shoots the gun out of Parker's hand, Parker shakes his hand, turns to James and shouts:

"I'm not going back!"

James makes a distasteful look toward the man and just says one word:

"Coward"

Parker looks down at the ground then says to James:

"I may be a coward but I'm not going to die"

From behind him, a voice says:

"Jim…we're fighting for independence"

Jim looks ashamed and small then asks:

"Is independence worth dying?"

James's partner and James himself say:

"I think so" "And so do I"

A voice inside my head wants to scream:

"I think so too!"

James then says almost in a hiss:

"Where's you're partner?"

Jim looks around like a rabbit in a trap then says:

"I know I'm a coward and I'm arrested and I'll probably hang but dang if I'll tell"

James says to his partner:

"Get him back to camp, I'll look for the other guy"

His partner shakes his head okay then puts his arm on the guys arm, takes him to his horse, Jim gets on his and James's partner on his and they ride back to the army camp.

James goes and gets on his horse and acts like he is going to ride after the other deserter but when he looks back and makes sure his partner is gone, he just rides to the woods then shouts out in no particular direction:

"All right, come out now!!"

After a few moments that it would take for a human heartbeat to beat four times, Victoria emerges from the woods, she smiles as does James at her.


	3. Chapter 3 Circling like Wolves

She just stood there as he got off his horse, he goes and ties it to a limb of a nearby tree and then he comes back to her, he just circles her and watches her, studies her like a wolf after a prey. She asks him a simple question:

"You knew I was in the woods?"

He just shakes his head silently and says:

"I've known for months"

This time she smiles and asks him another question:

"Do you know what I am?"

He circles her again and says in a low voice:

"You are what the Indians call the 'Cold Ones"

She smiles then asks him another question:

"And that doesn't frighten you?"

This time he smiles and says:

"I have other things to be frighten of"

He looks toward the woods as if studying the line of trees and she says:

"Go on, give him the justice he deserves"

He smiles the goes to the man's paint horse that is tied to a tree limb like his is and he unties it, slaps the horse on the rear then goes back to Victoria and says:

"A good horse will always take you to the man you want"

They watch the horse slowly trot into the woods and disappear, James just follows silently and Victoria smiles and goes back into the woods.

**James's Point Of View**

James went silently in but his mind was whirling inside his head, he went through the woods and then he came upon a clearing, it had a huge pond with it and there he saw his prey. He was a tall man, about 5' 9", with sandy blond hair and dark brown eyes, his face looked like it needed a good shave, James didn't have his shotgun, just his pistol but he cocked it and said:

"You're under arrest! Martain! Put your hands in the air!"

The man turns around with his hands up then says:

"I knew you were here when I saw my horse"

James just walks up to him, turns him around to feel if he has any more guns on him but doesn't so James gets his hands, ties rope that he sees on the ground and secures them tight around his wrist then takes him roughly through the woods and James says:

"You're giving up easy"

The man spits on the ground then says:

"Ain't easy, I've been running for 5 months, I'm tired"

James looks at him then says:

"You'll rest when you're dead"

The man doesn't say anything just goes with James as James gets on his horse with the man walking forcibly behind him.

James and the deserter reach the army camp, James takes him into a tent then comes out a few minutes later counting money, hops back on his horse to leave camp when his partner comes up to him and asks:

"Where are you going James?"

James looks at him then says:

"I'm going somewhere to be alone"

James stress alone so the man will understand so he just shakes his head and James heads off in the same direction they went and his partner looks confused.

**Victoria and James:**

Victoria hears him even when he's far away but when she realizes how close he is, she comes walking out of the woods at vampire pace, she realizes if she had a beating heart, it would be going at a tremendous pace. James sees her and jumps off his horse and with the sounds of gunfire and cannon's going off, he smiles at her like a demon, he walks over and encircles her again, she's puzzled but happily so….she starts the conversation off:

"I'm glad you are back, I didn't know if you would come"

He stares at her breasts swelling in her green dress then says:

"You knew I would"

She smiles then says:

"Yes….I did"

His smile widens but instead of talking, he just grabs her and kisses her cold lips, and after a few seconds, he stops and just looks at her then says in a husky voice:

"I want to do that again"

She smiles as their lips meet and this time her hands glide over his arms and the kiss goes deeper. Then she breaks it apart and says:

"Come"

She takes his hand and they run into the woods, they run for miles until they stop at a grass hut. She turns to him and says:

"I made this today"

He looks at her with puzzled eyes then she says:

"Vampires are very fast"

They go in the hut and it is just big enough for a dry mattress of leaves, grass and sticks and a small fire. She turns to him and smiles, he does too, they kiss after a few minutes, she helps take off his shirt and loose vest/jacket. Her dress falls and she kisses him again, then this time she encircles him, staring at his back and she places her hands on his chest in a loving way then she _bites_ him in the neck and little bites all over his back until he passes out.


	4. Chapter 4 Revoutionist Vampires

I stayed outside as much as I could, I kept the fire going but it hurt me to hear his screams of pain and torture, I don't remember my changing, so I didn't know if this was normal or not and if it was I should hate myself for being the one to bring this pain on him. The only times I dared leave was when I was thirsty and I saw shots of redcoats near the woods then finally on day 3 of waiting...he came out of the little hut, he saw me, looked down at me because I was sitting Indian style on the ground and he just asked:

"You changed me?"

I just looked at him in the eyes and said:

"Yes"

He just coldly smiles,looks around then asks:

"What do I do now?

It's my turn to smile and I say:

"Just follow your instincts"

My heart leaps and I think to myself:

'He doesn't mind! He doesn't mind that I changed him in fact he seems pleased'

He sniffs the air and I say again to myself:

'God! It's not fair that he should be so handsome even when sniffing!'

He just takes off running at vampire speed and he laughs because it is something he could not do before. I chase after him and when I catch up to him, I see he has already killed two British men, I had heard they were camped out this way and nearly everywhere, James throws the 2nd one down then says:

"Why am I still so thirsty?"

I walk up to him and say:

"Because you are a newborn and newborn's thirst more"

He just sighs and we hear footsteps, I grab his wrist, signal to him to climb the tree, we do and a fat British soldier and two others who are skinny come along, they see the dead bodies but James and I only smile because we know there is little they can do so we jump down and 'take care' of the bunch.

After we finish off the three, James smacks his lips then looks at me then says:

"I don't even know you're name"

I just smile as I smooth my dress and look at him and say:

"I am Victoria"

He smiles and takes my hand then says:

"I am James"

I just close my eyes like a silly schoolgirl and say:

"I know"

We then silently go walking over the land, hearing gunshots and the sounds of war and James discovering his extra new senses when suddenly he stops and he shouts:

"My horse!"

Sure enough the white beauty that had been his, is tied up with a bunch of other horses, he walks up to her and suddenly she starts acting up as does the horses, he looks back at Victoria and she says:

"They are frightened, they sense the change in us and it's scary"

He back away and his horse is the first to calm down, he walks backward to Victoria and says:

"What is he doing here?"

Victoria looks around then says:

"The British may have found her and assumed her a lost horse and took her"

He makes a face and a low growl escapes from his throat then Victoria says:

"Let's look around"

They go and they walk and look at everything then after 2 or 3 miles of walking, they come upon James's army camp, they notice the silence, the fires going out and James says:

"Something is wrong"

He grabs Victoria's hand and they run down, James looks in every tent but finds nothing, he looks in the officer's tent where he would get paid for bringing in a deserter but he only finds upturned furniture and he says out loud:

"Nothing!!"

Victoria just turns her head and says not a word but then goes two or three steps then she shouts:

"James!"

He runs over to where she is and he looks at the direction she is pointing at and sees to his horror, his former riding partner laying on the ground, all bruised up and bloodied with ashes on his clothes and James runs over to him and shouts:

"Jake!!"

James picks his friend up, somehow ignoring the blood, Jake awakens, tries to smile and weakly says:

"J-James"

James tells him:

"Be quiet, don't talk"

Jake just coughs, James signals silently for Victoria to get a rag to wash Jake's face, she does, runs it over to him and Jake says:

"Who?" "Her name is Victoria, she's a friend"

Jake coughs again and tries to smile and says:

"A-about time you had one"

Victoria wipes his face then Jake tells them:

"James, I-I was worried about you, I was just about to, to come looking for you, when they came"

James looks at Victoria then asks:

"Who?"

Jake coughs some then tells him:

"The British, a whole bunch of them, they came in here by surprise and captured and tortured us, they wanted us to renounce our independence and our loy-loyalty to King George….when we wouldn't they, oh God James, they did unspeakable things"

Jake coughs and Victoria goes and gets him some water, Jake takes a sip then continues:

"Some did but a lot didn't, I told them I g-give my pledge to no man"

Jake sticks out his chest like a proud man then says:

"I'm glad you a-are okay James, c-carry the fi-fight for us"

Then he dies and James lets out a terrifying howl of pain. We buried a lot of men that day but we couldn't let buzzards or even the British steal what dignity those men had left. A few moments after we buried the last man, James started tracking, I had never seen anything so easy, they say that the British carry no different scent but James and I know better, it's hard to describe but it's almost a high lavender scent anyway, James tracked their camp just a little ways from where we saw the horses. They were there, laughing and slapping each other's backs I suppose to congratulate themselves on their conquest of American men. I also saw the men who turned their backs on their countrymen, my stomach wanted to turn as I saw them put on those redcoats.

James looked at me and I nodded, I picked up my dress and went into the enemy's camp:

"Gentlemen…"

They all stop what they are doing and look at Victoria who gently picks up her dress and enters in camp as swiftly and gentle as any fine lady human and she says:

"My carriage overturned back a little ways from here, it was a miracle I survived…"

James watches in disgust as the men fall all over Victoria and one man offers her a chair to sit down, James goes around and Victoria says:

"I was wondering if you men could help me"

One officer finally asks:

"How may we be of assistance?"

Victoria starts to answer when James says:

"You may die for me"

All in one vampire quick action, James jumps in, he alone kills a handful of guards in the simple breaking of bones, I jump up and start killing a few myself but James being a newborn also drinks a few men's blood, I just get out one of the officer's pistol's from the desk and I begin firing. A few tried to escape, foolish, James tracked them down effortlessly and finished them. When we realized we were through with the entire British camp, it was then we saw them…the men who betrayed James's camp. The four men were tied up to each other that connected to a pole, James slowly walked up to them

And asked the first one which was a tall, gaunt man with a beard and brown eyes:

"You're Hank aren't you?"

The man looks at James with much fear in his eyes and says with stammering lips:

"Y-y-yes sir, you're that man we hired to g-get deserters"

James steps even closer to him and says:

"Right, now can you guess what I am?"

The man looks at James puzzled and watches James as he picks up a small sized boulder and squeezes it like a tomato and how it crumbles into little tiny shards of rocks and the man screams:

"God Almighty! You're the undead! You're a vampire!!"

James just smiles so coldly that even I shiver and then he says in a even, flat tone:

"Very good Hank but guess what? I am not going to drink your blood…"

He breathes a small sigh of relief but the men around him still shiver in a cold sweat and James carefully picks out his next few words:

"I am going to…pick each one of you apart just liked you watched our friends over there die"

All of their eyes go HUGE when James says that and before you know it, James gets the last one in line, a smaller pudgy of a man, James rips his arm off, throws it away but he seems to be careful about get it on him, he then just makes his fist into a claw and, oh…my…God…he rips the man's heart out, throws it down to the ground then he and all the other men watch him die.

Hank tries to barter with James and pitifully says:

"James, we had no choice, it was either that or die and, and we-we didn't want to die"

James just walks over to him and says to his face:

"And what are you doing now?

I won't go on with what he did to the other men but with Hank, he was slow, very slow, I think he saw Hank as the leader of the betrayers. He was not proud of what happened that day but I now knew what we had become we were 'Revolutionist Vampires!'

James and I went back to our little hut for that night, we had to get rid of those stinky blood soaked clothes so we just stole some off a line at a farmhouse ten miles down the road. I got a pretty, yellow dress and James a pair of pants and a tan shirt, but that night before we dressed….James built a fire, more for light than heat, we didn't need that.

James looked at me and before I knew it he was kissing me, loving me in a way a man human or vampire never has. I was thankful we were **Deep** in the woods, we made a lot of noise that night, he was a newborn and I had never been with a man.

My hands went all over him that night exploring and he enjoyed it.

**Just ONE more chapter, I think, I enjoyed this chapter, tell me what you think.**


	5. Chapter 5 Almost the End

**James POV**

Six months had passed, I was enjoying heavily this life that Victoria had given me. I could smell things, hear things and even feel things better than I ever had as a mere human. The tracker inside me was growing, building up better with each passing day.

The British were still heavily around even my slaughter of a entire British camp, my mouth pooled with venom at the very thought of them! Victoria and I had moved from that little hut she made of forest tools, she felt it best, she felt something or something closing in on us, she seems to have a gift of escaping danger and my adoration of her grows with each passing day but there is a problem and it's growing....Victoria doesn't feel it because she is the growing problem.

James sits in front of the fire not really watching the sparkles of flames go up into the sky, just absorbed in his own thoughts when Victoria comes. She sits across from him, she smiles but then she notices that he is not looking at her, he is not looking at the fire....he listens to his thoughts so she snaps her fingers, he doesn't hear so she goes over to him and lightly pushes him and says:

"James"

He comes out of his thoughts quickly then says:

"What? oh, Victoria"

She shuffles her body then tosses her hair then says:

"I'm hungry...let's go find something to eat"

He smiles then says:

"Let's go"

A short time later, we came across about five British soldiers waling about so Victoria and I took them down easily then after we drank the last one's blood, Victoria drops hers to the ground quickly, looks around then says:

"Let's go"

I throw mine down then I ask:

"What?"

She reaches for me then only says:

"Danger"

I just follow her into the woods, she signals for me to go up into a tree and quick as cats, we climb it then we see them, two officers carrying lit torches, they see the drained bodies and their eyes go huge and one says:

"See! I told you! Bodies drained of their blood!"

The fatter one says:

"Rot!" "Then how would you explain it my Lord?!"

The fat officer looks confused at the bodies then says:

"I don't know"

The younger man looks around with fright in his eyes then says in a shivering voice:

"It's the undead I tell you"

The elder officer looks at him then says:

"Private Johnson! I will not have you tell the men this, they're spirits are rather low as it is what with the Americans winning this bloody war, I will not have you telling them they could be sucked of their blood at any moment now"

He gulps then says:

"Yes sir"

The officer looks back at the bodies then says:

"Let's go, I want to report this to the Colonel"

The younger shakes his head then they both scurry like rats back to their camp.

I start to jump down on them when Victoria stops me, she puts her hand on my arm and says:

"No"

My eyes narrow in puzzlement and I ask a single question:

"Why?"

She looks down to make sure they are gone then says:

"Because if you jump down and kill those men, others will come and surely they are thinking the same thing and a vampire hunt will come!"

I sigh because I know she is right so we both jump down.

There was another time, a few weeks later, after we came back from a hunt…Victoria went and sat down on a small, soft hill of grass and I looked at my red hair vixen angel and she smiles and I say:

"I think I want to go into town today"

She looks at me with a puzzled eye then asks:

"Why?"

I shrug my shoulders and say:

"Because I want to…I would like to get some more new clothes and maybe some lunch"

She frowns and says:

"I don't think you are ready, it takes a long time for newborns to adjust, look how you were ready to jump those officers a few weeks back, I had to stop you"

I just sigh and say:

"You're right"

I go and sit down next to her and she puts her arms around my neck.

A few days later, I look around the landscape then I come to a decision and I tell Victoria :

"I think it is time for us to move"

She looks at me and asks:

"Why?"

I run my fingers through my hair and say:

"The British and the Americans are moving in, more chance of us being discovered"

She smiles and tells me:

"I can always get us out of those things, I wouldn't worry"

No, of coarse not.

I just throw my arms around her and say:

"No, I'm not"

Something is happening and I **DON'T** like it, just a short two days later, I put on the stolen clothes I have and I put my hair back in a ponytail then I tell Victoria:

"I'm going hunting"

She just quickly jumps up from the spot where we had just made animalistic love, she grabs her dress, quickly puts it on and says:

"Okay, I'll come"

This time, I just slowly turn my head and in a vampire low voice say:

"No"

She looks at me with wide circles of eyes then asks:

"James…you're a newborn"

This time I look at her face on and say:

"It's been nearly 7 months! I think I can handle myself!"

She just throws the brush she has in her hands down on the ground and shouts:

"It's not time enough! You'll risk exposing us!"

He looks in the mirror and says:

"Listen, I could understand all these months you keeping me here but it's been long enough and I think I can do it"

She just turns her head to him and says:

"James, don't"

He just walks right past her and she yells after him:

"Don't you realize I'm just trying to protect you? I love you!!"

She slowly falls down to the ground and hits it in frustration.

James walks on to the woods, he looks around and around mostly in frustration then says to himself:

"I know she loves me but…"

He leans against the nearby tree and hits it.

It may seem like a eternity to a woman in pain but in actuality is only a few hours, Victoria still sits there in frustration when all of a sudden several pairs of rough hands grab her, she looks about and sees its the same British men she and James saw several weeks ago, she screams:

"What!?"

One of them sneers and says:

"You didn't think we saw you lassie did you? We waited until the other one of you was gone and we could grab you!"

She tries to shake her arms free from the cruel hands but she can't so she just yells:

"What do you think I am!!"

They all laugh and the skinny one says:

"You're a vampire!"

She looks at all of them one at a time then asks them:

"What proof do you have?"

They look at each other and roughly throw her on the ground and go huddle together.

James is walking back to the small camp where he and Victoria stay thinking about what to say when he quickly stops in his tracks. He sees what is going on, Victoria down on the ground, several feet away the British officers talking and to his horror, he realizes the situation, and he whispers a question to himself:

"Why isn't she fighting back? What is she doing?"

He then remembers a conversation they had months ago when she told him of her own transformation:

'I ran into a strange man, he was older, about middle-aged and had the beginnings of silver hair on him and I was running from the men of the town who had accused me of being a witch and I explained my situation and he asked me 'Would you like to make fools of them?' I asked how and the next thing I remember is waking up in a deep, dark cave'

He sees the men arguing amongst themselves and he tunes in his ears at them:

"How do we prove she's a vampire?"

One small thin, thing of a human stamps his foot like a mad schoolboy and says:

"I tell you, I saw her and the other one up in the trees listening, how can a human man or woman get that high up in the trees? And with her hair…." "Don't be stupid man! What may be impossible to you and, and these _Americans_…"

James notices that he spits out Americans like a ancient swear word:

"These Americans live with these trees, no telling what they can do to them" "Right as rain" "Oh, balderdash to you both"

One of the men eyes light up with a idea then says:

"Her fangs!"

The men all look at the man saying those words and he explains himself:

"All vampires have fangs right? Let's see hers and we can tell the others we saw"

James thinks in disgust:

"These stupid, frail humans, how they can come up with these fables and nonsense"

The British men all turn and go to Victoria, grab her chin up to them, force her mouth open…but see no fangs.

"She doesn't have fangs? How can that be?"

Before anybody can answer, James sweeps on them like lightening falling from the sky.

Victoria is the only one who smiles.


	6. Chapter 6 The End or is it?

As soon as James sweeps in and takes down the 'vampire hunters', Victoria stands up and easily breaks the ropes as a cat scratches across someone's face. James throws her Private Johnson, she grabs him by the neck and screams:

"You fool!! Vampires don't have fangs!!!"

To prove her point, she turns him around to watch James open his mouth and bites into the neck of his victim and then she does the same to him. A double thud is heard as they both throw their victims down onto the ground and they smile as the humans lay dead around them.

After we had buried the dead bodies in a mass grave, I look at James, I throw down my shovel and go to him and I tell him in my softest voice:

"James…I'm…."

Before I can say another word, he grabs me and kisses me. Hard with passion I have yet to feel from him, if I could cry, I think a tear would come from my eyes. His hands glides smoothly over my skin from my neck to where my heart should be beating.

He looks at me with puzzlement, pain and sorrow and he tells me:

"Don't you know what I would have felt if they had ….killed you? Taken you away from me?"

I just grab his hands in mine, put my cheek on them, softly kiss them and say:

"You won't ever have to know but James, I am truly sorry for how I have done you,

I guess I was just so scared I would lose you somehow"

He smiles then says:

"You won't ever lose me"

He kisses me again but this time deeper, stronger…it seems we melt down to the ground kissing, and then my hands find his shirt, I unbutton it and he unzips my dress then we make love again on that spot of land, under the trees and with the cold winds of war around us.

We left that spot a hour later after that, James was right, we should have left it earlier, I just wanted to stay there, keeping him a newborn…James has really adjusted to life as a vampire, more so than I. One of the first things we did before we left that area was that we went into town and bought some beautiful, new clothes, James did have a bit of trouble with the many, many scents humans can bring and his nostrils did flare up a time or two but he did control himself. I'm proud of him and…I love him more every day.

A few hours after we bought our beautiful clothes, we walked at a slow vampire speed down the east coast, a few hours away from the state we had called home for so long, we stopped at the pacific ocean and watched huge flagships come in and James said:

"I hear the French are coming to help the Americans"

At that very moment, we both smell a different smell…I recognized it as the scent of another vampire…James didn't because he wasn't used to running into another of our kind. It was a vampire but something….different. A man of olive tone skin, black hair, dark eyes said:

"Yes, we did come to help the Americans"

The vampire had a slight French accent, he looked at us then at the ships and James and I looked at each other then James asks:

"You're a vampire?"

The man smiles and says:

"Yes, I'm Laurent"

The man holds out his hand for James to shake, James looks at me and I smile nervously and James shakes it then says:

"Did you come by ship?"

The man smiles then says:

"No, I knew I would frighten the others, I followed by walking on the ocean floor and on land when I could"

We all fall silent then Laurent finally asks:

"I am alone in this country…may I join your coven?"

James looks at me and I just shrug my shoulders and he smiles then says:

"I never thought of us as a coven but yes"

Laurent smiles then asks:

"Who's the leader?"

James looks at me and my eyes look at James and he proudly says:

"I am"

We all turn our faces back to the ships and think of freedom.


End file.
